


Wherever you go

by qya9feline



Category: Free!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Character Death, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Past Lives, it's a reincarnation au so someone had to die right
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-25
Updated: 2017-06-25
Packaged: 2018-11-19 00:02:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11301579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/qya9feline/pseuds/qya9feline
Summary: Makoto's dreams leave him with a deep feeling of sorrow even after he wakes up.





	Wherever you go

_**“don’t go!”** _

Makoto wakes up with a start. The curtains have been pulled back and the light streaming in from the window hits his eyes. He squints his eyes with discomfort, the memory of the dream slowly slipping away leaving him with only a curious feeling of sorrow. His whole body is damp with sweat and realizes that he’d been sobbing in his sleep. He looks over to the other side of the bed, one that is usually occupied by his partner in life, but sees that it’s empty. He then glances over at the alarm clock on the nightstand beside the bed and panics when he finds out that it’s already 9 o’ clock. “I’m late” he exclaims and in his hurry to get out of the bed, falls rather gracelessly on the floor with a thud.

He hears footsteps coming towards the room in a hurry and Haru walks in with a look of concern on his face and a ladle in his hand. He looks at Makoto who’s on the ground, disoriented but unharmed and his worry dissipates. The blue-eyed boy inadvertently lets out a chuckle and Makoto thinks to himself that he should fall out of his bed more often just so he could see Haru do that again. It’s a lovely sight to see early in the morning and believes that his day would be a wonderful one.  
But then he remembers, he’s late.

“Haru, I’m late”, he exclaims again, he wonders if the alarm is broken because it should have rung at 8, it’d been working perfectly the day before.

“Did you turn off the alarm Haru?” he asks while fumbling back up and rushing to the bathroom to wash his face.

Haru stays silent for a while, watches as Makoto almost trips on his way, and then follows him to the bathroom without entering inside.

“You don’t have classes today.”

Makoto’s in the middle of squeezing the tube of toothpaste when he looks behind at Haru and sees that he’s smirking, _smirking_ , “Haru must be on a really good mood today”, his brain supplies.

_Wait. What?_

“Oh”, he remembers, as he looks at the tube of paste in his hand “Right. I don’t.”

He looks behind again and sees Haru still looking at him with that vexing yet extremely adorable little smile on his face, _“He’s teasing me, isn’t he?”_ he thinks to himself.  
Haru looks on as Makoto resumes what he’s doing and starts brushing his teeth. The dark-haired boy knows that had it not been for that brush in his mouth, the boy in front of him would have been pouting and Haru finds it incredibly endearing. 

“You could’ve told me sooner you know.” Makoto says, putting away the brush.

“I could’ve.”

_“He really is teasing me.”_

Makoto’s about to open his mouth in response when he smells something burning. Haru looks at him with eyes wide, then at the ladle that’s still in his hand, and sprints towards the small kitchenette of theirs.

“Open the windows” he hears Haru shout. 

Makoto rushes behind him and opens all the windows in their apartment. “I forgot to turn off the stove”, he hears Haru say between coughs as he enters the kitchen. Thankfully he can see no trace of fire anywhere and feels relieved. “It’s fine now, but we have nothing for breakfast.” Haru says again. 

“Don’t worry about that.” Makoto says as he pulls the smaller boy towards the door. They both take deep breaths once they’re outside. Haru’s damp with sweat and his eyes are teary because of the heat and smoke and the larger of the two eyes him worryingly. Makoto puts his hand on Haru’s back and starts rubbing it gently in a soothing manner.  
“I’m alright Makoto. It’s just a little smoke.” Haru says to alleviate Makoto’s worry, who still looks on at him with his eyebrows furrowed. 

They stay silent for a while after that, Makoto’s hand still continuing the rubbing motions on Haru’s back. The older boy looks over at him, and thinks that Makoto is going to get wrinkles soon if he keeps on furrowing his eyebrows like that. Haru doesn’t like seeing Makoto distressed and tries to think of a way to relieve him from the tension.  
“You know,” he starts, “I always thought it would be you who’d burn down our apartment.” he says with a smirk.

He knows it did the trick when Makoto looks over at him and starts full-on pouting. Haru’s said this enough times for Makoto to know that he’s teasing him again.

“Haru this is not a laughing matter”, he whines, “Fires are dangerous, it’s not like you to be so careless.” 

“I’ll be careful from now on”, he says, “Let’s go inside. The smoke has probably cleared up already.” He takes Makoto by the hand just like the way the light-haired boy had led him outside.

 

The smoke had cleared up, more or less. Haru looks over at their spoiled breakfast and sighs. He doesn’t have enough time to make breakfast if he wants everything to go as planned. He’d wanted to make Makoto his favorite meal and then take him to a surprise date. But all that happened had thrown his plans into disarray.

_“It’s alright. We still have time.”_ He thought to himself. _“We can get something to eat at a café or something. I’ll have to cut down the time on other things but it’ll work.”_

He’s thinking to himself until he sounds a familiar sound. “Makoto, can you hear that? It sounds like”

“Oh no”, Makoto exclaims and Haru sees him running towards the bathroom.

He’s aware of what caused Makoto to rush into the bathroom. This morning has been an adventure of some sorts, a ridiculous one but an adventure nonetheless, and he finds himself chuckling at the thought.

He follows him to the bathroom unhurriedly, and sees Makoto give him a sheepish grin, “I forgot to turn off the tap.”

“Makoto, you have to be careful.” Haru tells him and adds, “Go get dressed, we’ll have breakfast outside.”

“Eh, where are we going?” the green-eyed boy asks, but doesn’t get a reply. He then remembers something that has been niggling on the back his mind since the morning, but had forgotten about in all the commotion.

“Haru, don’t you have a training session today? I know you do, why aren’t you at the pool?” He asks, not happy to know Haru’s cutting class.

“I took a leave.”

“And have you told your coach about it?”

“Yes, I did. I told him I’d be back the day after tomorrow.”

“He didn’t object to it?”

“No, he said we could have it easy for a while, we did just come back from a tournament.”

“Oh, alright then”, Makoto says moving towards the closet, “Where are we going Haru? We always have breakfast at home, no matter how late.”

“You’ll see.” He says, and adds after a pause, “Wear the black V-neck and the red flannel shirt.” 

Makoto gives him a quizzical look, “Alright?” He can feel Haru looking at him and that makes him feel embarrassed, he’s glad he’s turned away so that the blue-eyed boy can’t see him going redder. Little did he know that his ears had already given him away.

“I’ll change too.” He hears Haru say. The brown-haired boy glances over at him and sees him picking out his favorite blue shirt and his black skinny jeans. 

“You’ve planned something.” Makoto realizes, “That’s why, you asked for leave. And you usually sleep in with me when we both have holidays, but you were already preparing breakfast today. Haru, are we going on a date?”

Haru makes a face at having been found out so easily. “You’ll see.” He repeats.

 

Haru is locking the door when Makoto says, “You know Haru, about before. I thought for sure that you’d be the one flooding our apartment.” He says chuckling.

Haru gives him an unimpressed look. His boyfriend is probably the loveliest, kindest, most understanding and compassionate human being in the world, but he’s also the clumsiest dork with terrible comedic timing. And that only makes him even more adorable and endearing to Haru and he tries to hold back the sudden craving to kiss that chuckle right off of his lips.

‘That was really bad Makoto.” 

“Haru” Makoto whines, then follows up with, “I know.” and Haru knows without even looking at Makoto’s face that the pout has resurfaced again, along with Haru’s desire to kiss Makoto. And this time he doesn’t hold back.

It’s a short kiss, unlike the kisses they had when they were in a more private place (someone could be looking at their way after all). But Makoto’s cheeks get pinker and he beams at Haru with a smile whose brightness could rival the sun, unable to hold back the joy.

Haru thinks the date’s already going great even before they step out of the house.

 

They’d gone to a bakery for breakfast after they left their place. Haru rarely drank coffee but unfortunately tea wasn’t on the menu, so he’d asked for black coffee and crepes while Makoto asked for a latte with a chocolate pastry. They’d ended up sharing everything like always, and while Haru didn’t have a sweet tooth like Makoto, he’d also enjoyed the food.  
Makoto isn’t surprised that the date that Haru planned consisted of a visit to an aquarium, he’s not complaining though, he likes aquariums but what’s even better is watching Haru’s eyes light up when he sees the animals.

He figures Haru probably thought he liked aquariums, they’d been to one a year ago, albeit a small one. He’d really liked seeing the animals and a really happy Haru, whom he’d told about how he’d like to visit again. The aquarium from before didn’t have a dolphin exhibit though, so he couldn’t wait to see Haru’s reaction to it. They used to watch dolphins on the TV when they were younger, and if the wonder and delight in Haru’s beautiful blue eyes while watching the dolphins were any indication, he was going to love it for sure.

Haru and Makoto both left the aquarium beaming, it wasn’t that obvious on Haru’s face if you didn’t look into his eyes that were currently shining like sapphires, and for Makoto, it felt like his face was about to split with all the smiling. They were also slightly wet, Haru having chosen the seats right in front at the dolphin exhibit. They’d been in the splash zone and while Makoto felt uncomfortable wearing damp clothes, Haru looked absolutely ecstatic. Makoto couldn’t help but smile at that.  
They’d been walking along the pavement when Haru stopped him at an arcade. Haru tugged him straight towards a claw machine and proceeded to try his luck at getting a toy, most likely the stuffed cat he’d been so close to capturing but missing every time. Makoto looked over at the other toys, mostly stuffed teddy bears of different colors and some alien-like creatures he remembers seeing in a cartoon that he watched with his siblings. Haru was getting increasingly frustrated, but to Makoto’s surprise he did manage to capture it in the end. 

Haru turned over to him and Makoto could see the smug look of satisfaction at his accomplishment on his face. This sent Makoto chuckling, at which Haru narrowed his eyes and turned away in embarrassment. He pushed the toy towards Makoto, who took it with an ever-present smile on his face.

“Thank you Haru.” He says, “You didn’t have to get me anything though.”

“It’s a memento. So you won’t forget.”

“Eh…”

Haru starts walking away and Makoto takes it as a sign to drop the subject. He doesn’t think he needs a tangible object to preserve the memory of their date but is happy nonetheless to receive the gift. It’s a really cute toy too, and it reminds him of the strays that he and Haru had unofficially adopted back in Iwatobi.

“Wait, Haru aren’t we going to play other games here?”

Haru turns back to look at him, “Do you want to?”

He thinks for a moment then answers, “Not really.”

“I figured.”

“So you brought us here only for a stuffed toy?” Makoto teases, raising his left eyebrow in amusement. 

“Yes”, he says, and adds after a pause, “I bought a few games if you wanted to play, they’re at home. You said you didn’t like arcades before, said it was too noisy.”  
Makoto does remember telling him that, it was the time Nagisa dragged both of them to an arcade when they’d gone to visit the city nearby. He’s surprised Haru remembers all that.

Haru looks at him curiously, searching his face for something Makoto doesn’t really know. Haru has been giving him strange looks at times these days and whenever he asks if something was wrong, he’d receive a shake of the head.

He decides to let that go for now. “But Haru if you wanted to get me something, you could’ve just bought a toy, you didn’t have to go through all the trouble you know.”  
Haru glances at him from the corner of his eyes, “This way is more interesting. I wanted to give Makoto something I won myself.”

Makoto blushes at that. _“My blood vessels are going to burst at this rate.”_ He thinks to himself. He looks over at Haru and sees that he’s turned his head away, and knowing Haru it was probably out of embarrassment.

Makoto feels light, he feels like he’s walking on air so he doesn’t know where he’s being led to until Haru abruptly stops at a large glass door. “This is the last stop.” He says.

Makoto looks up and sees the sign, _“Figures.”_ No date with Nanase Haruka would be complete without a trip to the pool, and he’s glad he’s the only one who knows it first-hand.

“I haven’t brought a swimsuit Haru.” Makoto states.

“I already brought them, yours and mine.”

Makoto is confused, he knows Haru hadn’t brought a bag today, “When? How?”

“Yesterday. They’re in my locker. I booked the pool for a few hours, we’re a little late.” 

“You did plan everything.” He says laughing, “Haru-chan’s the best.”

Haru is pleased at Makoto’s comment, but it is also making his face pinker by the minute so he hurries inside with Makoto in tow, “Drop the chan Makoto.”

 

The sky is rapidly darkening outside, yet the two aren’t in any hurry to leave. Makoto sits by the edge of the pool with his feet dangling in the water and looking up at the sky through the glass ceiling. Haru floats on the water with his eyes closed, seemingly with no care in the world. They’re both silently enjoying each-other’s company.  
Makoto looks over at Haru, who is still on the water and is hit again by the adoration he feels for the boy. Haru who’s felt Makoto’s stare, goes to the nearest edge, flips over and starts swimming towards Makoto. 

Makoto watches him all the while he’s swimming and when he reaches him, Makoto cups his cheek lovingly and Haru’s whole world turns green the shade of spring.

“You really are the most beautiful when you’re in the water Haru.” He says with so much conviction in his voice Haru momentarily forgets to breathe. Haru is too dazed to even blush at the comment, and just stares at Makoto in wonder, slowly moving his hand to rest on top of Makoto’s hand that still cups his face.

Makoto looks over at their hands and a smile takes over his face at that. “I haven’t had so much fun since forever. Thank you Haru, this was the best date ever.”

“Is.”

“Huh.”

“The date isn’t over yet.”

“Oh. Right.” He goes back to smiling goofily looking at the love of his life turning away and looking into the water. Haru doesn’t move away. He keeps looking at the water but his hand is still in Makoto’s hold. Makoto knows he’ll remember the day forever, the day Haru went even more out of his way to make Makoto happy. He feels like he’s the luckiest person alive. Everything goes quiet again until Haru speaks.

“I missed you.”

Makoto looks at Haru, who’s looking at him straight into his eyes and he understands what Haru means. “Oh Haru, I missed you too. So much.” A lot of things had changed ever since they moved to Tokyo. They were never without the other back at Iwatobi, but here, because of their respective classes, they’d only get to see each other a few times a day, at most. That too, only because they shared an apartment together, if they’d been leaving at different places, he knows their time together would have been drastically decreased. Not to mention Haru’d been back only a week ago after an entire month because of his training, followed by a tournament in another prefecture.

He’d missed Haru so bad at the time, and Haru’s confession lets him know that he’d felt the same. “Haru”, he calls out and stands up. Haru looks at him, then nods, understanding what Makoto’s trying to say. 

Makoto offers him his hand and Haru takes it like he always had, and always will, as long as the hand is offered to him. He’d missed this part of their routine, and felt like something was missing every time he got out of the water by himself.

Makoto leads him towards the benches, and once he sits down, he pulls Haru into his lap and embraces him tightly. Haru relaxes into his hold and positions his legs so that they’re now at Makoto’s sides. Makoto’s arms are surrounding him and he presses his face into Makoto’s chest. 

“I don’t want to be separated from Haru for so long again.” He complains, knowing that it’s bound to happen again. 

“Me neither.”

“Maybe I should go to your tournaments with you next time.”

“Yeah. Or I can follow you.”

“Hmm, you could.” He says, nuzzling his face into Haru’s hair.

“I really would follow you Makoto. Wherever you go. As long as you’d want me to.”

The confession surprises Makoto and he stops what he’s doing. Haru raises his face from Makoto’s chest and faces him.

It is then that the look Makoto hasn’t been able to decipher comes back. Haru’s scrutinizing his face, looking for something and Makoto finally decides to ask.

“Haru, is everything alright?” Haru’s brows that were furrowed with concentration eases up and he turns away, “You can tell me anything, you know that”, he says imploringly.

“It’s nothing.” Haru tries to evade the question.

“It’s not nothing Haru. You’ve been looking at me with a strange look in your eyes. Did I do something wrong?”

“NO.” Haru yells at that and then calms down. “No, you haven’t. It’s just that, it’s just that you’ve forgotten…” 

“Forgotten? What did I forget?” Makoto tries to come up with something, something he’d forgotten that would’ve troubled Haru.

“It’s nothing Makoto.”

“Haru?”

“It really is nothing, you’ll remember when you do. And even if you didn’t, it wouldn’t matter.” He says. 

“But?”

“Makoto”, he starts, pulling Makoto’s palm into his and starts stroking them gently, “it really isn’t that important.” He continues and he feels relieved to see the stress leaving Makoto’s body at the touch. “We have to hurry up Makoto”, he continues, “the date isn’t over yet.”

 

Haru takes him to the ramen shop that they often visit. Haru knows Makoto inside out. He’s heard that it was customary for guys to take their dates out to fancy starred restaurants on dates, but he knows that Makoto would choose the simplicity of a bowl of hot ramen noodles with Haru over all that fancy stuff any day. Not to mention, they really do make the tastiest ramen they’ve ever tasted in Tokyo.

 

The sky might’ve gotten dark but the glaring lights at every turn prevent the city of Tokyo from actually sleeping. It’s so different from Iwatobi, where at this time, the only sound to be heard would be the sounds coming from the ocean.

Makoto wants to hold hands with Haru, but he knows it’d would draw unwanted attention to them, mostly unkind ones at that. He holds himself back from reaching out to grab Haru’s hand, and keeps his palms firmly to himself all the way to their apartment.

 

The door isn’t even fully closed behind him when Haru pulls him into a deep kiss. Makoto isn’t objecting to it either, he’s wanted to kiss him like this ever since Haru donned the pair of black skinny jeans that make his legs look so…tempting. And Makoto isn’t oblivious either. He knows that the dark-haired boy knows what kind of effect Haru wearing those particular pair of pants has on him.

They eventually break apart, Makoto hitches Haru’s legs up until both his legs are around Makoto. Haru gives the larger boy’s lower lip a little nibble at that. 

“I’ve been wanting to do that since the morning.” Haru repeats the thought that’s also running in Makoto’s head, and Makoto catches his lips in his own again.

“Why didn’t you then?”, Makoto asks between kisses.

“Because I knew I couldn’t stop once I started.” Makoto goes still at that, and looks straight into Haru’s eyes. He finds Haru looking at him with pupils so dilated with arousal that he can spot only thin rings of blue around them. The sight goes straight to his groin and he’s taken over by a strong feeling of possessiveness, the urge to never let anyone see this sight of Haru if he could help it.

He knows he’s not the only one feeling that way when Haru starts sucking and kissing his neck, leaving bright red marks on his path.

This action from the blue-eyed raven brings Makoto back from the high and he regains his composure, he’s overwhelmed by the love he feels for the smaller boy in his arms, his soulmate in every way, whose thoughts run on the same wavelength as his. He gives Haru a tight squeeze and while still carrying him in his arms, goes over to the door to lock it properly.

Haru whines as he can’t reach Makoto’s lips and Makoto chuckles at his lover’s impatience. The moment the door is locked, Haru pulls him into him and kisses him deep until he runs out of breath, meaning the kiss isn’t that short, bless swimmer’s lungs.

“You know Makoto,” Haru says, giving short pecks at Makoto’s jaw and moving towards his cheeks in between, “there’s a reason I took tomorrow off too.” He adds sultrily.  
Makoto surges to capture Haru’s lips at that, he takes long steps towards the bedroom and pushes the door open with his foot. When he reaches the bed, he drops Haru on it gently, then hovers over him.

Haru’s already pulling him back into a kiss, when he remembers something and stops him, “Wait Haru, you’re off tomorrow. But I still have classes.”

Makoto is surprised at how crestfallen the raven looks at that, Haru turns over and pushes his face into the pillow, “I guess you can’t help it then.” He makes out the muffled sound coming from Haru.

Makoto can’t take it anymore with how cute Haru’s acting. He flips it over as Haru lets out a small sound of surprise. “Who said we were stopping?”

Haru looks up at him with eyes wide, “But?”

“Haru, even if I stop now, I won’t be able to concentrate on my lessons tomorrow with you all over my mind now will I?” 

Haru looks up at him, eyes shining with anticipation.

“Oh but we do need to shower. We’ve been outside the whole day today.”

Haru looks disappointed at that, but the look is immediately replaced by one laced with playfulness and mischief. “Hmm. Or.”

“Or?” Makoto asks.

“Or we could start at the bathroom.”

Makoto doesn’t need any more prodding than that.

And he’s never been so grateful to Haru for having chosen an apartment with a large bath. Large enough for two people with space to move around in too.

 

_Blue._

_He is surrounded by the color blue on all sides._

_**“Oh”** , he realizes, **“I’m in the ocean.”**_

_He can see sand on one side, not far away. **“What am I doing here?”** he questions. _

_He feels something weird in his hands, he looks down and sees a net in it._

_He looks at the net in his hand and gives it an experimental tug, he gets startled when he feels something tug back._

_**“What is happening?”** _

_He starts swimming towards the shore, he pulls the net with him and while it does seem like something’s caught up in it, whatever’s caught isn’t making any movements._

_He reaches the shore and pulls the net towards him. **“Maybe it’s a big fish, it did feel heavy.”**_

_**“This is a very weird dream.”** He concludes. _

_He’s absentmindedly pulling the net, humming a song to himself, when he sees a bluish-silver tail. He wonders what kind of fish it could be when the ‘fish’ suddenly moves.  
Whatever it is tries to throw the net away, but instead gets even more tangled in it. _

_He’s too frightened to approach the thing, but he’s still having a hard time watching the creature struggling, so he goes over to it._

_**“Hey don’t do that. You’ll only hurt yourself more”** _

_He doubts it can understand him but the movements do stop and the creature raises itself slowly._

_He tries to pry off the net from the creature, which has gone completely still. He wonders if it’s just biding its time to attack him, but continues anyway, out of curiosity._

_He’s freed the tail out of the net but the upper half is still stuck. **“This fish is really slender, what kind of fish is this?”**_

_He manages to get a peek of the creature’s upper portion from the holes in the net and can make out a pale coloring, almost like a…_

_He stills for a moment but resumes at an even faster rate at removing the net._

_The net does reveal what he’d been suspecting._

_**“A mermaid.”** , he glances over his body, **“Oh, a merman.”**_

_The creature in front of him has pearly white skin, almost translucent. His hair contrasts with his skin as it’s pitch black. He has what looks like a normal human body, except his torso is attached to a bluish-silver tail that looks like one belonging to a fish._

_He steps closer out of curiosity and concern, as he can see the creature breathing heavily through… **“Are those gills?”**_

_He’s almost made it to the creature when it abruptly opens its eyes and he drowns in blue._

_He doesn’t know what happens next. He’s bombarded with different sensations._

_A shoal of fish swimming in the sea._

_Blood._

_Water._

_Sounds of laughter._

_Gunshots._

_Sounds of someone weeping._

_Kisses that taste of salt._

_Screams._

 

Makoto jerks awake, realizing that the scream had been from himself. He’s sobbing uncontrollably, and he feels Haru pull him into his arms. 

“It’s alright Makoto. It’s alright. Calm down.” He says like a mantra. “Everything will be alright.”

He is disoriented but unlike before, Makoto can remember the dream, “Haru.” He says, to calm himself down. “Haru.” He clings on to his anchor to reality.

The dream had been so real. He gradually starts to breathe normally. All the while, Haru keeps his arms around him.

“Haru, I saw you.”, he starts. “You were there. You were. You were a…”

“Makoto.” Haru starts rubbing soothing patterns on his back. “I’m here. You’ll be alright.”

“Haru.” Makoto says, just uttering his name bringing a semblance of peace in his mind.

“Haru.” His breathing evens out and he sees Haru looking at him with concern. And more. _Understanding?_

The latter part confuses Makoto. “Haru?”, he questions.

“It seems like you’re starting to remember.”

**Author's Note:**

> I thought of the story while listening to YMCA on repeat, I don't know why but that song really cheers me up.  
> This is still unbeta-ed, so if you find any mistakes, please let me know in the comments.  
> Also, I am really bad at titling stories, this one is saved as "reincarnation au", the other one I posted is named "prince haru au". My other fics are saved in a similar fashion.  
> So if you've made it this far, please consider suggesting me a better title and summary for the fic, I'd appreciate it a lot.


End file.
